I’ve recently returned from the Greek/ Macedonian border, where I was documenting the refugee and migrant crisis.

I was travelling with a delegation of senior UK church leaders, part of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.

What I will always remember from the trip was the woman in the centre of this picture, Diana.

Amid the squalor and the rubbish, this neat and self-composed young woman stood out.

With her Mango handbag and carton of juice, she looked like she was going shopping, instead of enduring a long, dangerous and uncertain journey across an unwelcoming Europe.

Diana is a lawyer. She told me that she was traveling to Germany with her mother Majida because their house in Damascus had been destroyed and they had nowhere to live.

They were desperate, but very dignified. I think my questions irritated her; I sensed did not want to be treated with pity, or curiosity. She did not want to dwell on her circumstances. She wasn’t interested in talking to me.

She just wanted to get the journey finished so she could continue with her life.

Over the past few months, I’ve been working on a project to train a group of people, all on benefits, to speak out against the stigma of poverty.

The idea behind the course, commissioned by Church Action on Poverty and Oxfam, was to create a network of spokespeople who could talk about the reality of life lived at the sharp end of welfare reform.

These spokespeople would powerfully challenge the current scrounger/ skiver narrative.

As well as running six workshops with the group, I set up a website, www.stigmastories.com, to tell the stories of individual members.

I organised an event to introduce them to the community, which included a panel debate to discuss some of the issues they raised.

In January I visited Colombo, Sri Lanka, to photograph and write about the work of the British Council’s Active Citizens programme – with whom I have previously visited Sudan, Serbia and the Outer Hebrides.

Some pictures from a recent trip to North Yorkshire for the final piece in my Big Issue in the North series on austerity, to run over the next three weeks.

I’ve revisited three areas – the others being Stoke and Goldthorpe, South Yorkshire – for an update on how they have fared since I first visited to see the impact of cuts in 2011.

North Yorkshire is richer and more resilient. Yet a growing elderly and increasingly vulnerable population will sadly bear the brunt of cuts, which are focusing on care services and rural transport. Services have already disappeared.

I first met Christine Harker, above, on a bus in 2011. She epitomises the flinty spirit of the Dales. But without her weekly link to the outside world, she would be lost.

“We have never been without a service – but now we don’t know whether we will have a service. It’s a worrying thing for old people. The majority of them don’t have families, while some of them have families that live a long way away.”

Sheila Robinson, 87, still lives in the picturesque rented row of cottages she did when I first met her in 2011. She is a full-time carer for her daughter, who has learning difficulties and mental health problems.

She, too, is concerned about what the future brings. “When you are told that things are going to change it’s a constant worry.”

Volunteers are rallying around to preserve services. But when you are dealing with the most vulnerable people, living in some of the most remote areas of England, it feels like a real risk to run services on goodwill.

Really pleased with progress on the final report for The Good Society – a research project I’ve been working on since 2011.

The black and white images look really strong, and fit well with the text. It’s often difficult to envisage whether something will work, but the designers Fieldwork have done a good job.

It’s a first draft, so there’s some work to be done; especially on editing the text down so that it fits into a format that is easy to read. Rather than create a stuffy, text-heavy report that no-one will read, the plan is to create a newspaper filled with the images and stories gathered on my visits to community development projects across the UK.

As it nears the final stage, I’m really excited to see how it will look.

I visited Kibbutz Ein Harod in Israel in May 2012 – I also revisited the nearby Kibbutz Massada, where I had spent two months as an 18-year-old volunteer in 1995.

The kibbutz I had such fond memories of is now semi-derelict. The international volunteers had been replaced by Thai guest workers.

While in Ein Harod, I was very struck by how the Israeli mentality is shaped by their own definition of freedom; what it means to be free, what price is worth paying for that freedom, and how important freedom is to one’s sense of identity.

The kibbutz is still a very potent symbol of that definition of freedom; and both are unique to Israel.

Yet the kibbutz are changing; out of step with a modern, increasingly consumerist society, their collective ideals have been abandoned – and their political role of settling the land has been taken over by more fundamentalist settler communities in the occupied territories.

Perhaps in some way their position reflects the majority of Israelis; tired of the fight, yet defined by their circumstances, they are aware that the future is uncertain, but they continue as they are – because, well, what is the alternative?

The initiative, which teaches participants about politics, local government, and funding, is designed to empower people with the knowledge they need to make positive changes to their lives and communities.

Inspired by what she learnt, Sarah subsequently established the BCD Community Gardens Association and transformed her rubbish-filled alley into a community garden. Surrounding streets have since been inspired to create their own gardens.

In March 2011, Sarah set up the Weaste Area Forum. As well as providing a democratic voice for local people, the forum have also created a jobs centre, community gym, and cafe in their local social club.

Sarah is now a mentor for other Salford Apprentices.

This case study was commissioned by Church Action on Poverty, whose Community Pride Unit runs the Salford Apprentice course in partnership with Salford University.

To read my Big Issue in the North story about Sarah’s journey and the Community Pride Unit, click here; to read about an article about her work with ex-offenders published in Mule newspaper, click here

The Seedley and Langworthy Trust was first created in 1997 to support the regeneration of a deprived area of Salford, this year named the second poorest in the UK.

After receiving a three-year £390,000 Lottery grant in 2009, SALT was able to develop a number of innovative projects.

These included Seedley and Langworthy In Bloom, which has won the North West Regeneration category of the national In Bloom competition for the last decade. SALT also provided a benefits advice, advocacy support, and a job search service.

However, following the end of their funding, SALT is now facing an uncertain future. The community are deeply concerned that the good work of the past few years will slowly be undone.

Pits, potteries and their dust-clogged, dangerous environments once made Stoke a sick city. Yet as traditional industry has declined, the trade with the biggest occupational hazards is now unemployment.

Over a quarter of the city’s children live in totally workless houses, incomes are a third lower than the national average, and one in four adults of working age receives workless benefits.

The city’s death rate is more than a quarter higher than the national average.

On 25 February 2011, the council approved plans to cut 710 jobs, slashing £36 million from the 2012 budget. These cuts will make Stoke the third most vulnerable area in the country. The city is due to shed 1,870 public sector jobs before 2016.

Casualties of the cuts included Bucknall City Farm, closed by the council on March 6, 2011 to make a saving of £143,000.

The farm, home to a menagerie of horses, donkeys, rare breed pigs, goats, rabbits and birds since 1980, was a much needed source of pride for an area in the top ten per cent of the most deprived wards in the country, and provided volunteering opportunities for hundreds of local disabled adults.

Now the donkey has been moved to a sanctuary, and the animals have been rehoused.

The Etruria Industrial Museum, located in what was the Victorian equivalent of Silicon Valley, is also threatened. Cuts have forced enthusiasts to set up a charitable trust to run the museum and its much valued education programme.

Read my 2011 Big Issue in the North piece about austerity in Stoke here; the 2013 update is here.